If you practice Bikram Yoga that are some inevitable SHOULDS…

If you practice Bikram Yoga that are some inevitable should and should not

When you step into that hot room, it should not be relevant who is teaching, who is next or behind you.

You should move around, don’t pick the same spot, don’t bring 2 water bottles, one is enough. You should not bring the extra sweat-wiper towel. Leave your cell phone off and hidden in a deep pocket of your yoga bag in the changing room. You should stop your personal rituals, it is normal we all do, they are special, but not need for them, they are distractions, we are avoiding being ourselves. We are trying to escape.

You should keep coming back.

You should tune in, that is what you are here for.

You should go to that scary place in triangle that you have been avoiding for so long, you should stay in camel pose longer.

You should relax in Savasana.

You should not blame your teacher for trying to help you in the process; she has a job to do. She should help you tune in. Not to fix you; you should fix yourself. Your teachers’ compassion toward you will not be perceived as compassion at all. But she is doing her job; you should allow it.

You should have no distractions, no outside stimuli, no escape, and no choice but to tune in.

In return in a Bikram Yoga class guarantees a better you, a stronger you, it should help you physically, mentally and emotionally to be yourself. If we allow ourselves to get rid of all those road blocks and directly yet slowly face what is really scaring us in class we’re building useful neural pathways that will allow us to do the same when faced with fears and challenges outside of the hot room.